


Lies of Love and Omission

by TwoCatsTailoring



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Post-Trespasser, a good ben-hassarath doesnt let shit spiral so fast, bull's tamassaran would be ashamed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 05:05:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15767196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCatsTailoring/pseuds/TwoCatsTailoring
Summary: That dragon's tooth thing seems far fetched as dragons only stumbled back in to Thedas 40ish years ago. It's also freaking huge in her little human hands.





	Lies of Love and Omission

“Hey, kadan?” Bull poked his head around the door frame and offered up what could only be called a strained smile.

“What did you do?” One glance from over the top of the newest chapter of Varric’s version of the Inquisition’s story was all it took for Echo to know that whatever he was here for, it was not going to be wonderful, peaceful news.

She wagered that either there was a snoufleur in the kitchen garden again or he was going to pull the bloody stub of another finger out of his pocket. It was 50/50 at this point.

He rounded the door and crossed the tiles, dropping a kiss on her forehead before he began, “So you remember when you couldn’t find your half of the dragon’s tooth after we got back from Ostwick?”*

He had all of his fingers and other than his limp being a little more pronounced, he seemed fine. And he smelled fine too so, no snoufleurs. “Yeeees,” she affirmed with grave suspicions, closing the book and sitting up straighter. 

“You didn’t lose it.” Bull lifted her crossed ankles and sat down on the end of the sofa, settling her legs across his lap. “I took it.”

Echo blinked at this revelation and remained silent, staring at him for a long minute. Her tone, once she spoke, conveyed every bit of strained patience that she was feeling - she had looked everywhere for that necklace, searched ever bag, written letters to her parents, her brother, even her youngest nephews to try to help her find it only to be reduced to tears when it remained stubbornly lost. “ _ Why _ ?”

“Why did I take it or why did I not tell you?” He was losing ground fast and had honestly not expected her to be this upset about it. It’d been a couple of months already. He hadn’t expected her to forget, but he had hoped time had softened the blow some. 

“Bull, you are stalling.” She was confident that she didn’t need to say that her appreciation for his attempts at humor right now was at abysmal levels. He could probably tell. If the black frown didn’t give it away then her version of crossing one arm did. 

“I took it because it doesn’t suit you. No,” he interrupted as her jaw dropped and she started to protest. “Let me finish. It was too big for everyday and didn’t tuck safely into your armor. It was nothing but in your way.”

Echo was conflicted. He was right, of course. The number of chains and strips of leather she’d gone through just trying to not lose her half in battles was ridiculous, and even Cullen had once remarked that the outsized tooth must be hard to plan an outfit around. She hadn’t cared about the extra effort and had gotten very used to it over the years, but the fact remained that the effort  _ had  _ been extra. 

“And,” he took a deep breath, “I made it up.”

“What do you mean you made it up?” 

“The whole thing about it being a Qunari tradition. That was a lie.” He watched as her face morphed from confusion to a blank stare that she typically reserved for Orlesian nobles who were on her very last nerve. He estimated that he had about ten seconds to get this off his chest before she started ranting, and he didn’t waste a second of that. “I knew that everything I’d told you about the Qun bothered you, that the truth of it - that romance just isn't something that happens - would disappoint you. We’d just taken down the Stormrider a few days before….”

“So you were thinking on your feet when I pressed the issue,” she finished quietly, but with clipped words.

“I was thinking on my feet,” he gave her leg a squeeze, “When you cared enough to ask how love worked under the Qun.”

Echo sat in silence, her head down and her lips pressed tight together. She loved how smart he was. How thoughtful, how wiley and clever and brilliant he could be. But sometimes, his being all those things still hurt a little. “And it never occured to you to admit this before?”

“No. Because it didn't matter before.” 

“Watching me lose my mind because I couldn't find my half of the physical token that made us one whole didn’t matter?” She leaned forward and smacked his arm, knowing that it didn’t hurt but still needing to get the frustration out somehow.

“No!” Bull made a disgusted noise and explained, “The lie didn’t matter before. Look, that whole Ostwick trip was a real eye-opener. I watched  _ you  _ move through  _ your  _ world, not all the Inquisition crap you never asked for. And I realized that you were doing it all with a massive chunk of a dead dragon’s mouth hanging around your neck.”

“A massive chunk of a dead dragon’s mouth hanging around my neck so I’d keep a piece of you close, even when you couldn't be. Lie or not that’s what it was for me and I want it back!” Echo’s voice rose and her throat felt tight. How could he? How could he  _ do this _ ? Why would he? What was the point?

Bull stretched out a hand to her face, stroking his thumb over her cheek while the other disappeared into his pocket. “I know. And you will. Right now.” He hadn’t expected this to get so convoluted and hindsight was busy pointing out that he really could have handled this better. Too late for that now, though. At least it would make a good story. Maybe.

Bull sat a pale blue box across her knees, tied with the signature creamy white ribbon of a well-known Kirkwall jeweler. It was too small to hold her half of the dragon’s tooth. “What’s this?” He was being too unpredictable for her to completely trust right now. It made her heart hurt.

“Just open it, then I’ll explain.”

She fumbled a little with the ribbon and Bull shook the second box inside the pretty one out into her shaking hand. This was way too small to be her charm. This wasn’t what she wanted at all. She’d never had to put on any sort of act for him before, but now? Maybe she was about to have to start, and the idea of it made her sick.

_ Best to get this over with quickly _ , she thought as she opened the last box.

Inside, nestled on a bed of silk, was a ring. Almost translucent in places, the band was swirled with yellow and white and through one section of it, there was a dark blue-gray line. She knew that line. Looked at it every day for nearly three years. That was the scar from her first attempt to split the dragon’s tooth than she had given to Bull.

She’d done it wrong at first, not noticing that there were grainlines where it would cleve better, and her first try had left something like a bruise from where the chisel hadn’t worked. And here it was, still there on the carefully faceted and polished surface in front of her.

“Bull, I….” She wasn’t sure how to finish that statement.

He wasn’t sure how to read her silence. She wasn’t as tense now, her shoulders relaxing and the tightness in her neck releasing. He couldn't see her eyes though, and those always told on her. 

“Do you like it? If not there’s four others you can pick from. That one was the one I knew you’d recognize.”

Echo glanced up and him and giggled, her hand over her mouth.

Giggling was good, so Bull went on. “There’s a bracelet too. It’s got a line of aquamarines set into it. Dagna and Harritt took all the dust and scraps and made this badass bloodstone and dragon’s tooth pendant? No idea what they did to it but Dagna said it’ll fit in a slot on that grappling hook arm she’s building you.”

As he talked, he took the box from her and popped the threads, freeing the ring and holding it up to the light. “Still angry with me?”

“About the fact that you lied, let me nearly lose my mind wondering where it had gone, then had one of my very favorite pieces of jewelry cut to bits and remade?” Echo asked, her head to one side. Bull hung his head and looked away. “I’m disappointed that you didn’t just tell me what you were doing, yes. But angry? No, not really.”

“Good,” he replied, taking her hand and sliding the ring on her finger. “Then I just have one more question before I let you get back to your book.”

“What’s that?” she smiled, lacing her fingers through his.

“Marry me?”

**Author's Note:**

> * The trip to Ostwick happens post Tresspasser and had both Bull and Echo meeting very different sides of one another as well as confronting their separate pasts and collective future. It was *hard* but good. They headed back to the Emerald Graves on a leisurely pace through Kirkwall to look over the estate Varric gifted her.


End file.
